Heartaches and Horses
Young Tom Hall. By R. S. Surtees. (Blackwoods. 20s.)
A BOOK illustrated by Mr. Lionel Edwards and published by Country Life is born with a silver spoon in its mouth. No one who loves horses will fail to look through Horse Sense with pleasure, but when it comes to reading, we are not so sure. There is something rather irritating about "Craseredo's" style : he won't cut the cackle and come to the 'osses. Perhaps, indeed, he has very little to say about horses. He states that neither he nor the reader know what thoroughpin is, although it is described in Horses and Stables, and every other veterinary work we possess except (as the author observes) in Animal Management, where doubtless the paragraph on bog spavin is meant to do duty. Neither does " Crascredo " tell us anything about bitting, jumping, stable management or the psychology of horses—all subjects on which there are at least a dozen men in England who could and ought to write informative volurosi. However, it is hardly fair to blame the author for what he doesn't say : our criticism of what he does say is that it is neither very original nor very interestingly put ; but the book is pleasant enough.
Although our English literature on training is not worthy of a nation of horse-lovers, when -it comes to hunting we lim:e Whyte-Melville and Surtees. No one can compare with them, Even at his worst, as in parts of Hillingdon Hall and the present work, Tom Hall, the author of Handley Cross is a genius who can take any liberties with the reader. (That is just what " Crascredo " cannot do). Who was ever tired of Jorrorks's reiterations, speeches, gastronomic exploits ? They are the foibles of an evening ; we read on, for in the next chapter James Pigg is cheering hounds into covert. And in this book about the Halls, father and son, and Lord Heartycheer and Dicky the Whip and the hard-riding Angelena, who would rather ride over than open a gate any day, we are in as jolly a company as ever followed the sport of kings.
There are more heartaches than hunts in Tom Hall, however, and a good deal of breakfasting, flirting, horse-coping, dining, and an amazing the dansant given by the Heavysteed Dragoons, It is all good fun, not perhaps the sport the old tea-grocer provided and will continue to provide for generations yet unborn, but vivid, virile stuff, written in the highest of high spirits and contagious kindliness.
What is it makes a good story ? Not plot or style alone, but humanity, enthusiasm and a quality of the unexpected. Surtees' people may be caricatures (as are the characters of Dickens) but they always " act natural " : they live because the author loves them and we learn to love them too—even fat old Bedlington, who draws in an acreof buff waistcoat from under the table, before leaving his port.
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